Burning bark

LUCKY 7

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We burn firewood all winter and love the low natural gas bills. my question is Do the rest of the peeps that burn wood for heat do they take the bark off or do they burn the bark? We burn it and will use some for kindling. I have seen piles of bark in the bush and think what a waste
 

moyiesledhead

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Generally more bugs in the bark. That's why I left it behind if it came off easily when I was still burning wood.
 

northern bear

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My take on bark, is that it doesn’t burn well. It’s always damp, even on dry wood. Bugs always reside there, produces lots of smoke and ash. Even birch bark, sure it’s a great fire starter, but when you first light it, it has an inky black smoke. I’m thinking a chimney system could do without that. Even in an outdoor fire, I only burn it to get rid of it.
 

LUCKY 7

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We do burn tons of larch and fir. I always wondered about the bugs. We do have more fly's in the house lately
 

ferniesnow

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I would take off as much bark as I could. The wood dries faster with the bark removed. Some of the folks up in Elkford used to tell me, fir bark was terrible for chimneys. I couldn't tell you, as I really never burned the bark.
 

ABMax24

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In my case if there's bark on the wood it goes in the stove that way. If the bark falls off somewhere in the process of cutting or splitting it the bark just gets tossed, with the exception of Birch, I like that for fire starter.

I know a few people that score the bark on birch though to allow it to dry faster and limit rotting.
 
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